


The King's Bedroom

by Ixtilton



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Dysfunctional Family, F/M, Family Drama, House Targaryen, Pre-Canon, Translation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-03
Updated: 2017-10-03
Packaged: 2019-01-08 13:50:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12255660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ixtilton/pseuds/Ixtilton
Summary: "When she sees the king, she's disappointed".Stolen moments from the life of Bethany Bracken





	1. Barba

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, this is a translation of my fic, originally posted in French on fanfiction.net "La Chambre du roi". English is not my mother's tongue, so there might be a lot of mistakes. My deepest apologies.
> 
> EDIT: new corrected version

**_I - Barba_ **

* * *

_1._

She is in the gallery when they come to get her

 _Bethany, Bethany_ they call, but she doesn’t answer. _Come Aegor, let’s run_ , she grabs the child's hand and he laughs as she drags him on the stairs. _Bethany!_ and she reaches the sacred wood behind the yard, laughing too, disheveled, red with sweat. She already knows the news.

The Bracken’s sacred wood is clear and well maintained, more like a pleasure garden, probably to mark the difference with the dark wood that serves as a place of worship for the neighboring Blackwood. _They sacrifice children to their Tree_ , she remembers, _at dusk when the crows croak_ (it's only a woman's tale, she knows it, but she likes the idea).

One day, she asks her sister what will happen to Missy and her children once she has taken her place, and her sister answers, half laughing, _well, they can always use the kids to feed their Tree_. She adds perfidiously, _it seems that the son of the bitch is of the same color as their piece of wood, we would find there a certain usefulness, I'm sure Aegon wouldn’t be against the idea_. Barba is very proud to know that the only children that Missy has managed to give to the king are two girls and some kind of degenerated brat when, her own son is already tall, strong and beautiful.

 _The king comes to Stone Hedge_ , she tells him in the silent garden. Behind them, the heart tree laughs at her.

 

 _2_.

Maybe Barba loves her bastard, as a memory of Aegon, as the proof by her eyes that once she was loved, that she was queen (almost). She asks herself whether she fails, _will Barba still cherish him, or will he become a painful memory, of failure and of shame. An embarrassing element in the background._ She thinks of her own children, of her bastards yet to come. _What are they going to do with them?_ Sometimes she hugs tightly little Aegor against her until he chokes, imagining that he’s her own son. _What will they do with me when the king is tired?_

 

_3._

_The bitch has played well_ , explains Barba. _Aegon loves change, whore or prude, noble or commoner, he takes them all. But to play the frightened maiden, she has found herself allies on the right side,_ she sniffs. _They must be glad that they have placed their creature in the king's bed._

 (“They” are their enemies, the milk blood, the dornishmen, the maesters, the Blackwood, and the whole queens and prince’s Daeron clique, _my enemies_ , she remembers.) Barba has made her a thousand times the portrait of the prince: limp, weak, submissive to women, (his mother, and his foreign wife). She's got for him, the queen and her knight, a particular kind of hatred. It was they who had her place and her reputation. Almost her head, she sneers. _The prince is the worst, he hides his game well. A hypocrite-born, the very opposite of his father, it makes you wonder who has actually begotten him,_ she entrusts her once _. Beware Bethany, Aegon can love you, and he will love you, but he will never be yours, not . A real dragon won’t be tamed._

Bethany wonders if Barba still loves him, despite the time, despite the distances and wounds, as she once loved him, when she wrote to her _he is my sun, he is my joy, he’s the only thing I need and if I were to lose him, I’d die of grief._ She knows that it makes her sister suffer, seeing him so corrupted and old, when she had for her the young knight, the soldier of Dorne's conquest. (She knows that she holds Melissa Blackwoood responsible for that too.) _She castrated him with her prayers, her charities, her false piety, she and her clique of hypocrite. They castrated him as to better rule behind his back. They wanted to split his claws, but they did not realize that he is the real dragon, all those bloodmilk, those dornish dogs, and he is going to show them._ (She looks at her seriously _), you are going to show them!_

 

_4._

_Her children shall be her downfall_ proclaims Barba. _The cow likes to procreate, and Aegon is always proud of his bastards, but he is quickly jealous too. She clings to it, it seems that she is crazy. He gets tired of it. If he's coming, it means he is already tired,_ she adds.

Her father tells her: _The Lothston wants to make her daughter the next mistress, she does not have an inch of your own beauty, we must bar her the way. But she is the Aegon’s daughter,_ she thinks, scared. _Is that what awaits my children?_ She prays harder for a little boy. _The king will not take any interest in Jeyne Lothston_ , says her sister, _he likes to play his little game between us_.

 _We, the Bracken and the Blackwood, a family in themselves,_ laughs Bethany _._ They live together, never seeing each other, their presences haunting every single of their gestures. _All kings have their own cruel games._ She wonders if Missy has got a little sister trained to please Aegon. _Maybe it will be the role of one of her daughters._

Bethany also wonders where is the limit between the truth of Barba's memories, and the myth that she has made of her former lover, on nights when she cries to find her sleep. Those when she drinks one glass too many. (This is unworthy of Lord Bracken's eldest daughter, but in the eyes of the Riverlords _she is already lost.)_

 

_5._

_Soon you may have cousins whom to play with_ , she says distractedly, _would you like that Aegor?_  
He gives her a serious look of his purple eyes, before nodding solemnly, _that would be splendid_. She laughs and ruffles his black mop of hair. _Your father rides to see you_.

 _Actually, h_ _e comes to see you,_ Barba corrects, her eyes fixed on her neck _,_ and Bethany feels a shiver running down her spine. _Or would it be for you, big sister?_


	2. Aegor

**_II - Aegor_ **

* * *

_1._

When she sees the king, she is disappointed. He is fat, slurred. His double chin is crumbling with fat. He has almost as much breast as she. His purple eyes are lighter than Aegor’s and less beautiful.

Her father bows. She looks at Barba, but her expression is indecipherable.  
Bethany stands behind Aegor. The king raises him in the air, laughing, and the kid smiles. _You're going to be a warrior._ He rests him, and he crosses her gaze. Bethany does not lower her head.

 

_2._

She is naked in her bedroom. She has just taken a bath with rose petals, and the smell is in the whole room. Barba examines her skin. _You're not as pale as a Blackwood, but so much the better, it gives you a fair complexion_. She pinches a nipple. _Your breasts are small_ , she comments, _smaller than mine_ , she adds satisfied. _They can still grow_ , she answers.

She's like a replica of Barba, her improved version, _and she knows it_. She went through learning all the habits, all the little manias, the phobias of the king. She knows his favorite color, his favorite perfume, his favorite dish, his favourite song, his favourite position. And then, there is another side to his education, a more _practical_ side. _The king's whore_ , said her uncle one day, _you are training her to become the king's whore_. They did not see him again at Stone hedge. He has two sons who would be of the age of Aegor.

 _Do not yield to him_ , said Barba, _not tonight. I know_ , says Bethany. She knows her business.

 

_3._

She does not leave Aegor, after all it is he whom the king came to see, and the king must see _her_. He seems to be charmed by the kid, laughs as he runs down a staircase with his little wooden sword, and bumps into the wagon of the farrier below. _It is quite me at his age_ , he says. _Aegon loves her bastards_ , she remembers. His conversation bores him, he talks to him about politics and the dornish scourge. Sometimes he makes compliments, so she runs away after the little boy, and, as usual, they arrive, out of breath and laughing in the sacred wood.

From the elevated gallery, the king looks down at them and he smiles.

 

_4._

He finds her funny, he finds her beautiful. She has caught him, without joy but with jubilation. She has long been waiting for this moment

He picks up bouquets for her. He travels the lands of the Bracken, goes hunting with the lords of the Riverlands, flirts with the peasant women, and comes back with large armfuls of wild flowers, which he arranges with taste. _Where has he learnt that?_ He is not handsome, but he has honed his compliments to women. Sometimes it almost moves her.

Some days, he takes Aegor with him, (Bethany devotes herself to go with the kid, as Barba feels indisposed). She rides gracefully, often outstrips the convoy, and lets the king catch her up in the middle of a flowery meadow. Men make rude jokes; she escapes with the kid, teaches him to plait crowns of daisies, so that she can arrange them in her hair when the king finds them.

 _My father likes you_ , says Aegor. _He wants me_ , but she winks and lets him slip a wild rose in her braid.

 _How cheerful you are!_ says Aegon to her. _It is the privilege of the younger_ she says, _the gift of carelessness_. _My brother is younger than me, yet he is not so happy_ , replies the king.

 

_5._

She is naked in her bedroom, royal sperm on her thighs. He did not penetrate her, not yet. She knows how to make herself desired piece after piece. A first gift for her departure from Stone Hedge. As for the king, he offered her a diamond necklace, and the Handship for her father. (He kisses her tenderly on the cheek, _I'm proud of you my daughter_ ).

Barba and Aegor do not come. Her sister wanted to give them the kid, but the king hesitated. _The kid stays_ , slices Aegon. _He loves his children only from afar, or he is afraid of his eldest son?_ She says goodbye to him, and he is careful not to cry. _I’ll come to see you, or you will visit us._ _(Soon he will do whatever I want!)_

Her sister doesn’t smile. Bethany thinks she's jealous. _Do not dream_ , she says, _remember where your place is_.


	3. Aegon

**_III - Aegon_ **

* * *

_1._

She is offended upon seeing that the Blackwood has not yet fled court. She waants to make a scene to the king, but curiosity prevails: she asks to see the old woman and her children. Aegon hates scenes, unless of course it is he who organizes them. He is delighted by the idea of a confrontation between his new mistress and the old one.

Seated next to Aegon, adorned with a magnificent necklace of rubies, Bethany looks at her rival. She finds her as flat as a board, despite her three successive deliveries. _She is not as beautiful as my sister_ she concludes, satisfied. She looks at the kids then. The elder is a mini-replica of her mother, the following has got pale hair and is very thin, as for the youngest ... Bethany confesses that she’s disappointed. She was hoping for a real monster, but it is more like a colouration accident, although the red eyes do have something beast-like. Bethany decides that the prettiest of the kids is still the eldest, because she does not like blond hair. _Careful girl_ , whispers her sister's voice.

Actually this meeting is not very thrilling. A pure waste of time. She lets her eyes wander through the room. She observes, amused, a knight leering a lady dressed in green, not very beautiful besides. His neighbour, in white armour, is quite charming, he smiles at her.

 _May we withdraw your grace?_   She blenches. Missy Blackwood looks at her. Bethany supports this look, where she would like to detect hatred, jealousy. She sees in it nothing but worry; _She's worrying about me_. She flushes. _Yes, yes, leave_ , she replies in the king's stead. The room whispers, but Aegon laughs, charmed by her impertinence. Missy grabs the hands of her son and of the blonde girl, then leaves the room. Bethany's father chuckles, delighted. The next day the Blackwood have left the court.

 

_2._

She has got the biggest diamonds of the Court. When her father meets her, he kisses her on the forehead. Every night she offers something to the king, a new piece of her, another smile, a new expression, a new story. Sometimes she says no, and she locks herself up in her apartments to make herself wanted, while he goes to see some whores. She takes a bath and she falls asleep in it, dreaming of being clean.

She gets bored, she organizes parties, rides, fireworks. She learns dances. She sings. She is offered the jewels of others. She's still bored.

 _They probably speak ill of me_. But the queen is praying, the prince is at Draonstone, and in any case, it is not her politics, it is her father’s; it is not her money, it is the king’s. _Let him throw it out of the window if it pleases him._

 

_3._

They are at a ball, and the king does not dance. _It tires him now that he’s so fat_. Barba and Aegon danced, until the middle of the night. But Bethany is not offended. As long as he lets her have some fun. The king watches her laughing, and takes pleasure in seeing her twirling.

A knight of the kinsguard asks her for a dance. She stares at him and says _no_. _You look like a Blackwood_. He arches his eyebrows in surprise. _What do you mean?_ _You’ve got black hair, and dark eyes. It is a face of Dornishman that you describe there,_ he says laughingly, _I am no Dornishman, thanks be given to the Seven._ _Where do you come from? The Toyne house is one of the oldest houses of the Storm Lands,_ he says proudly. _Doesn’t matter_ , _the knights of the kingsguard do not dance_ , she says, and turns her back on him. She goes to the king.

I do not like this feast, she says; Aegon offers her to retire to his apartments. From the corner of her eye she observes the knight, and wonders if all dornishmen are so pretty.

 

_4._

She dreams that she is at Stone Hedge, in a field of daisies. She imagines herself nestled in her bed, listening to the stories of Florian and Jonquil. She's a little girl. She redraws Aegon as a young handsome knight, like his brother. _Naerys has got her dragon knight and what of me then?_ _Do you think that one day a knight will make me his lady, and protect me from all dangers?_ She asks Aegor in the middle of the meadow. _Hey, what about me!_ the little boy protests. She blows a dandelion on his face; stretches out to watch the clouds passing inn the sky.

 _You're just an idiot_ , Barba says. She closes her eyes.

 

_5._

_He is fat and he reeks of sweat and wine_ , that's all she can think of. She rejects him and he takes it for a game. He finally fucks her, leaving a big stain on the sheets, then falls asleep on the bed.

She leaves the room, running. She swallows her lip. At the Sept the queen is praying with the dragon knight, but she turns her head when she sees her (Bethany and her torn dress, and her hair sticky and damp). She leaves, to not see pity flooding the eyes of Naerys. She hates them, the queen, the knight, her father, the king, the prince, the city. She runs in the rain, not because it's romantic, but because there is no one in the middle of the mud. She sees the tower of the hand and she cries. _Aegon hates that_ , she remembers.

A man runs towards her and lays his white mantle on her shoulders. He does not look at her, he does not speak to her, and she thanks him for it. He stays with her in the rain, and they both feel the long drops that entwines their necks, like a gigantic icy kiss.


	4. Terrence

**_IV - Terrence_ **

* * *

_1._

Aegon wants his mistresses to be protected by his own royal guard. _Protected or watched over?_ She knows that the dragon knight has seen all the deliveries of Barba and Missy, by defiance of the king. He often follows her wherever she goes, and his stern look seems to cling to her. _He looks at me as if I was a child._

Sometimes it's not him, but ser Michael Mertyns or ser Terrence Toyne. Then she relaxes, sometimes she laughs with her stern bodyguards.

She is in her bath again. The water is cold. He looks at her. Her breasts are naked. She’s cold too.

 _I think I’m sinking_ she whispers. He leans over and kisses her.

 

_2._

_Have you already broken your vows before_? she asks ; - _Once_. She does not want to know more. She drowns into his caresses as if they were the sea, she rests into his arms as in a river’s bed. She sees the silhouettes of her ancestors who rest in their turn, and it is the first beautiful dream she has long since, her ancestors in the waves of Terrence's  black river . She caresses his chest, is his heart as black as his coat of arms? But he laughs when she asks him; he has got a brigand's head, a wild and angular face. _Fly high, fly far_ she whispers. _The words of his house are that of a highwayman_. _Dornish, Blackwood, outlaw,_ she laughs, and he tells her _what my love?_ \- _You have all the flaws_. ( _You are so much more than anything that I never dared to ask_ ).

She makes love to him in the secret of their sheets. She wonders if Aegon gets the same pleasure whenever he fucks his whores. No wonder that he wants more. But for the moment she no longer thinks of them, she no longer thinks of him.

 

_3._

She should not, but her thoughts in her head are like sour milk, she does not know what she is doing. Her eyes follow her black knight, she shudders, feeling the sudden happiness left by the secret of their embraces. It is a pointless game, where she wins nothing, and where she can lose everything. It is a bad step on the Cyvasse board.

These last few days she thinks back of her uncle, and she wonders, for the first time, if all of this is moral. _He'd call me a whore. But Terrence would kill him_. _Aegor has never called me a whore_. (she forgets that she's fucking his father). _Barba would be angry. My father would be angry._

She wonders if the king fucked Barba when he was at Stone hedge. No doubt, but he did not dare bring her back with him. She feels relieved that he has not yet asked her to join them. It is a little gift that Barba keeps for later, she realizes, and nausea comes to her. She rushes suddenly and throws up all of her breakfast on her silk dress. _What’s happening to me_ , she wonders, _a bastard? What, already?_

 

_4._

_We could run._ (She whispers. He stares at her.) _Would you do that? Leave your family, the royal favors, all of yours, and go wander the roads with me? Let's go_ (she repeats, she weeps), _let's go!_

 _Him: I could find a boat, we could go to Pentos or another free city. Then I would join a company, the Second Sons for example. I would buy you a big house with a garden, and I would come to visit you, if you are not ashamed to be the wife of a sell sword. She_ (staring at him): _I'm the king's whore. Him: We'll be happy. She: Let's go my love. He: We will raise our son. She: Your son. He will have beautiful black hair and you will teach him how to handle a sword. He: Or my daughter,_ (laughs) _she will have your smile and all the princes of the earth will fight for her hand. She: No, not a prince, she will marry a gallant knight. The princes have all become barbarians._

_5._

She is naked in the bed of another. She folds the sheet to protect herself from the looks. Aegon stares at them and he does not smile.


	5. Bethany

 

**_V - Bethany_ **

 

* * *

_1._

The weather is cold. There won’t be any trial to judge them. _Caught in the act, how could I be so stupid?_ The king is waiting for the Bracken, who are to bend their knees, and for the great lords of the kingdom, to witness the fate reserved for traitors. Her father has also been arrested for high treason, _he is innocent, you know it well, it was me. I was young, I wanted happiness, I wanted love._ _Your sister comes with her son to King’s Landing_ , whispers to her the septa, looking at her with pity (but Bethany takes all the pity that is now offered to her). _Barba, she is going to implore the king, she will succeed. Aegon loves her, he always has. And he loves his son._

_He will spare me and give me to the silent sisters._

_And what about Terrence then?_ _No, he has broken his vows. He has planted on him horns. Aegon will kill him._ Then she weeps with rage and says to herself, _let me die, let me die with him!_ _But not my father, sire, my father is innocent. He has got a family!_

Barba will implore him, she will throw herself at his feet, she will bear Aegor on her breast, she will tear her hair down she will say, _take me instead me instead!_ ; and he will leave him; and he will go home, to breed his horses, and farm his lands. _He's my father, he sold me to your bed, he used me, but forgive him his pride, he did not hurt you, not you, no. Spare your son, leave him the image of a merciful and good king, of a father who listens, not of a father who kills._

 _You made us Aegon. You have shaped us, my family and me. I was brought up for you. You had my pussy, but never my heart._ She feels purified, she feels clean at last. _I was loved, as Jonquil was, as Naerys was. You will not have that Aegon!_

_2._

She thinks of Terrence. Their son looks like a little Blackwood, with dark hair and black eyes. They are in a free city; she sees exotic gardens; she feels the sea breeze on her skin. _Tyrosh, she decides,_ she likes tyroshi dresses more than anything because they have got merry colours. _I should have left when the king was with his whores._

_Oh, what a life I could have had!_

She hits her belly at night, she hopes that she will destroy the life that is growinv inside of her, before it sees the daylight. The septas try to stop her. _Tell the king. He will show mercy, for the sake of your child. It’s not his child, nor mine, it doesn’t exist,_ she says, frightened _._

_I’m sorry Barba, I’m so sorry. I dared to dream too._

_3._

THE DRAGONKNIGHT (as Commander-in-Chief and as a brother): _Spare him sire, allow him to take the black._

THE KING: _He has already broken his vows, how could he ever respect some others?_

THE QUEEN: _Punish if necessary, Sire, but spare the young girl, for if she has sined against you, it was only in the impetuosity of her youth, and in the error of her judgment._ I pray you, my lord, my husband, in the name of our children, of your daughter and of your heir.

THE KING: _You pray in vain, madam._

THE PRINCE: _Sire, I beg of you, to execute your Hand shall send an unfavorable signal to the lords of this kingdom._ Accept that Lord Bracken takes the black.

THE KING: _It will be time for you, my son, to meddle in politics when I am dead._

THE SISTER: _Sire, I beseech you, forgive my sister for her youth, for her errors, forgive her for having been seduced by this wretched ma who only ever wanted to abuse her._

THE DAUGHTER: _Sire, I implore you, forgive my father for his lack of vigilance and for the undeserved trust he put in his daughters._

THE EPLORES: _Sire, their faults have never been committed against you, but by excess of love, by trust in those who did not deserve it._

THE KING: _Barba my dear, how can I ever believe you?_ You have betrayed me too.

THE MOTHER: _In the name of the child of our love, the child we have had together you and me, have pity upon your lost sheep, have some pity of the house of your servants._

THE KING: _This child, as you say, he could be as well mine as another's._

THE WHORE: _Aegon, I beg you..._

THE KING fucks THE WHORE. The next day THE WHORE, THE QUEEN, THE PRINCE, THE KING, THE DRAGONKNIGHT are on a platform in front of the scaffold.

 

_4._

Bethany has prepared herself for this day. She has decided that she would be strong, that she would advance with dignity in the midst of the crowd, that she would salute the people from the top of the scaffold, that she would beg them to forgive her and to pray for the soul of the King. She would then remove her jewels herself, and lay her head on the block as if it was some white pillow. She then remembers that she will be executed without a block, that her head will fly on the platform, by one single blow of the headsman' s sword. _Oh, let it be only one blow._ She touches her neck so slender, so graceful. _Please only one blow!_

This day is wet, and she shivers as she walks through the crowd. She would like to go straightforwardly, but she bumps into her guard. She does not have her jewels. She is naked under a bure tunic.

In front of the scaffold, in the middle of the crowd, a tribune was erected. Bethany does not look at it, she accelerates, she almost runs to the scaffold. Why is she so cold? She does not look at the crowd either, she is afraid to find Barba in it, or her uncle, or her cousins, or even Aegor. _He's a kid, his kid, he would not do that._

Her father awaits her at the top of the planks; her heart falls. Her hands are tied in front of the yelling crowd; she’s going to cry. _Why are they tying them? Do they think I'm going to flee?_ Words are being said, she does not understand them. She turns her head. She sees Terrence.

They cut off his cock first. Then the ears, and the nose. Then the left hand, and the right foot. They put on him garrotes, so that he does not lose all his blood. He laughs at first, with a wounded laugh, a screaming one. _My love, my love soon we will be together, forever!_ he shouts again, before his lips are cut off. Bethany Bracken is no more than a long howl. Up there, the King weeps.

_5._

_It is so cold, I feel so cold._ Her hair is falling by handles, clearing her neck. The locks fall to the ground, next to her father’s head which has rolled on the wooden floor. She is given a little white cap as if to go to sleep.

_How cold I am, oh, how cold I am!_

* * *

Of those who will see the death of Bethany Bracken, each one will think of it one thing.

 _ THE UNCLE _ _will say poor little girl, they lost her!_

 _ THE KNIGHT _ _will say poor little girl, she was so young!_

 _ THE QUEEN _ _will say poor little girl, she just wanted to love!_

 _ THE PRINCE _ _will say poor little girl, she wanted to be free!_

 _ THE SISTER _ _will say poor fool that I am, it is I who killed you!_

 _ THE BASTARD _ _will say nothing (I think he never understood)_

 _ THE KING _ _will say Bethany, my beautiful Bethany, how I have loved you!_

 

 

 


End file.
